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PAGE 24, WH1TBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2E, 1992 bhusiness news Vour Financial Health Derek Dutka" ySuairt Blower Many 1 le hecome vi confused wCn they start te= te salesmen about computers. One reason isa that.they don't und.ratand the. technical terme the saleaman la throwing around. l'h. otherý reason la that tii. salesperson la actua]ly trying very bard te, confus. you with those same terme, because he or ah., wanta you te tbink tbey know what th.y are talldng about.. So, in order te relate te tthe majoity of unuophisticated computer buyers, lotfs try and compare the. computer te a car. Op-erating syutm l'o begin with, do y'ou want te buy a mouse-operated (automatic) or an. MS-DOR (manual> operating aystem? For example, tii. Apple Macintashi uses- a user-friendly graphica interface contralled lby a mouete move around on the. screen. ,l'h. computer automat=ica ae eo h Insido ia operatinge e you want te dolete a% e, Yo0u move that file fite a gra cari. machine, the user muet write long sentences te, code (such as: d./deélete A. directeiy nameJfle name). Tib is why a program called Windows la very popular and, in some cases, esseni"to, t the MS-DOS computer. It allows the. IIBM-style computer udLng MS-DOS te work like a Macintosb. Wmndows la the. s.mi-automatic add-on, and provides the look and feel of the. plcture.oriented, mouse-operated computer. The. driver Who la gong te drhive your car, or whicii pragrama will you want te, operate on your computer? It goes without saying that different drive may bhave, different requirements. Thes. requirementa may dictate 'tiie choice of car "and how- it is equpped. Similar choices may be dittdby-a-particular piece Of software. Wen purchaskzg a new system, it la, alwaya a goad idea te, firat look at the. sftware requirements. Computer 'RAM (Random Acces.Memoey> What amz engin, do you want in your car? l'Th. RAM lai responsible for the. sheer power of the computer and the amount of RAM, similar te cubic inches, determines what you cen do with your machine. Picking up the ids after school in sirnilar te word processing - sinall RAM la neddte operat. pragrams. Street racingeuates te, using CAD or Desktop Publisbing programa - larger RAM ia needed. 'And, time trials at Bonneville would equate with Colour ]Retoucbing and tbree-dimenfional illustrations. Typical RAM averages one to five megabytes (a megabyte ia 1,000K or 1,000,000 bytes). Average Desktop Publiébing programa require two te five megabytes. Hard drive How big is your trunk space? T'ypical home computera come equipped with a trunk that will hold 20 'te 30 megabtes. Business machines mayhTold40 te, 105 megabytes. And -pcal applications may increase. inte the, gibabyte category (dont ask, rmnot sure, but it'a really big). A bard drive mechanismn that la located musid. the computer box la called an internai bard drive. T'h. information on bard drives usually consiste of two kinds of files.: permanent files such as programe or apeplications, and temporary or work files that have been created with the application. The application pragram is copied or înstalled c"ite eard drive and la operated fromt there. Tii. original diak and application prgrm a tored awray in a sae plce or convenience, these programe are left on the bard drive. Files that are createdwith an a plication are your work Mies. eue can be stored, reopened and caqgd or deleted if you don't ne them. Most computer users store everytlung tb.y hae created anid ony tbink about, deleting or cleaning up their bard drivewenthey run out of space: » Floppy drive One or two glove compartments provide additional space for atorage witboôut cluttering up the trunk. l'h. space la emptied regularly and items are tbrown in the. closet.* Most camputera corne with at least on. flopydrive.This is a mechanismtba alow a a maller disk te be placed in the computer and files can be stored on them. Tii. disk la then removed and replaced with a 'fresh diak. Modern disk capacities are usually800K, 1.2 Mb (megabytea) 1.4 Mb, in the 3.5.incii siz, This la the. place te put all those files that are lutterlng up your bard drive. Proe gspoed Have you got standard ignition, electronic fuel irjection or a turbo? l'h. faster you. want te go, the. more it« will coat. ýý ..If -a computer runs faster, it cari perform an éperation'auch as calculating totale or aearcbing for a speclflc work, mucb faster than its slower processing counterpart. Computer operatora tint work with graphica 1k. to buy the, fasteat processing units they cari afford. Computer clock speeds are 5Muzte 50 Mz. But dot be fooled inte comparing processing op"ed fromn one computer syatem against the other. Sometimies3-the processor may be slower, but the overal computer aystem may be designed te operate faster at certain tasks. Maaite How much cen you aee tbrough the. windsheld? For Most applications, a nine- te 13-incii (diagonal measure- ment) monitor la enough. Data entry cari take up very litti, space. Word procesaing operatora usually are happy wath a acreen that can show the width of the average letter page, while engineers working on CAD drawings may need a 21-inch monitor te ase the entire project in sufficient detail. Options Would you like te add a telephone or fax? Telephone connections are made witb devicea called modems. These littie boxes'âllow the computer te connect and operate over the average telephone line. Thia means that you can contact other computers te transmit information, pay bils, receive information, etc. Fax devices work as part of a special fax/modem te send anything you can ýse. on your acreen.,and, converaely, receive regular fax transmissions from moat of the known univers.. Our comparion isn't perfect but la does provide 'a basic comparison between a familiar family car and the new computer. Just remember, you cari purchase and operate that family car without knowing how the engine and transmission worka. Simply determin. your engin. requirements, trunk space, ignition options and the Ind of windsbield you would prefer and whether or not you want an automatic, semi-autematic or manual, and atart shopping for your new car or computer. RegIstered retiremen t income f unds People Whoare t=urning age 71 mnust make animotn decision about how to convert their Registered Retirmn Savings Plan (RRSP) into a source of incomne. The choice they inake is crucial because the resuit will likely be their primar source of income during retiremaent. Traditionally, investors have had two options: either withdraw ail their money i cash, or convert their RRSP into a life' or flxed-termn annuity. Withdrawing was less attractive because most people would be taxed heavily. So, the najority of people chose annuities, 'lfge' plans that guaranteed them a regular income for the rest of teir life. Some annitieis also) offered guarantees for a flxed period so that if the investor <ied, paymenta would continue to be made to bis/lier estate. However, most annuities don't protect against inflation. The buying power of people who convert their RRSPs into annuities. sbrinks each year. Since 1986, the. situation regarding retirement incarne options as împroved dramatically witb Registered Retirement InoeFunds (RRIFs) emerging as one of the best vehicles to handie investors' retirement income needs. % An BRIF is a contract that provides periodic paymenta to the. investor from the startin date until the investor reaches age 90. For rnany years, RRIFa were umpopular because their rules were infleible. Then, after tbe federal goverument loasened the rules, many people began converting their RRSPs into, RRIFs instead of annuities. Under the new rules, knvestors can own more than one BRIF. As well, there is no limit on the amount investors may receive from their REIF each year. However, they must. withdraw a minimum amount calculated by. their current age subtracted from age 90. Another RRIF advantage ia that investors cari begin receiving payrnents from the RRIF limmTediately after purcbasing it, rather than being obliged to wait until the next, calendar year. Also, an REIF continiues te allow investors te. accumulate funds tax-free until they are withdrawn.« Here is how BRIF payments work. Eacb payment investors receive is a fraction of the value of the investorls capital at the. start'of the year. This fraction is equal te one divided by the difference between your age and 90. So, if you have a plan valued at $800,000 and you are 70 years old, the payent you will receive is one-twentieth of the fond or $15,000. Ths is -the minimum annuel payment in that year. It cari be bigher if you wish, but withdrawing too'mucb money too soon can deplete' your fonds, and the excess is subject te, a witbholdingtam. As you get aider, the fractonal amounts increase so ta when you are 71 you will receive one..nineteenth; when yoù are 72, one-eighteenth, when you are 73, one-seventeenth, and, so on. When you become 89, you will receive 1/1, tbat is 100 poe cent, of the remainder. Whule a disadvantage of an BRIF is that investers must exhaust ail the fonds' money by'the time theyturn 90,'tbe advantages of an RRIF can inake it far more attractive tban an annuity. Consider two of them. First, an RIF offeirs a wide and varied range of investment- choices. Unlike an annuity, that is based on flxed income returne, an RR[F cari be invested in growth or balanced investments, such as mutual funds. Second, an RRIF with growth.producing investments will surpass annuities in generating incom e and compensating for inflation., Suppose at, 60 you bought a $100,000 annuity invested' at 12 per cent over 30 years. Youwould receive $122,41 each year until you reached 90, and your, cumulative total would be $372,000. 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